Certain fuel-injected automobile engines operate sufficiently quietly that certain audible noise from the operating fuel injectors may be distinguished by some persons in the vicinity. The detection of such noise may be deemed objectionable by the manufacturer, and/or it may be mistakenly perceived by the customer as a defect in the product despite the fact it is operating entirely properly.
The present invention relates to a means for attenuating certain audible noise emissions from an operating fuel injector which achieves meaningful noise reduction in an effective manner that does not require major revisions to component parts of existing fuel injectors. Analysis of an operating fuel injector before the present invention has revealed certain noise in the range of about 4 kHz to about 10 kHz. The application of the present invention to that fuel injector has significantly attenuated that noise with the result that the measured A-weighted noise level has been reduced from about 60 dB to about 56 dB.
Briefly, the invention comprises the implementation of certain constructional features into the fuel injector in the vicinity of the armature/stator interface. Principles of the invention are of course potentially applicable to forms of fuel injectors other than the one specifically herein illustrated and described.
A fuel injector of the type to which principles of the present invention have been successfully employed is depicted in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,080.
A drawing accompanies the present disclosure and illustrates a presently preferred embodiment of the invention according to the best mode contemplated at the present time for carrying out the invention.